Why Change Is Needed

Background:

Better Care Together was set up in 2013 after a number of problems arose within local services.

After a period of engagement with local clinicians, stakeholders, patients and the public a strategy was published in February 2015 with the triple aim of:

Improved health and wellbeing

Transformed quality of care

Sustainable finances

We also want to ensure that services are flexible enough to meet future challenges, including an ageing population, an increase in people with long term conditions and new treatments.

In March 2015, we were named as one of 50 national Vanguards – developing, testing and implementing new models of care - with the support of resources from NHS England.

We are also working to share our learning both locally – across the Healthier Lancashire and South Cumbria programme, and nationally with other organisations.

Many of our developments in health care make it easier for people to be treated closer to home in places other than their local hospital and sometimes in their own homes.

We are developing even more facilities and services in the community, rather than in hospitals.

Making healthcare more joined up

One of the opportunities presented by our work is to make sure health and social care services across Morecambe Bay are more joined up. Ideally, we want to provide seamless care - based around the needs of individual patients - between hospitals, the community and people’s homes.

This means healthcare professionals are working together, whatever organisation or location they work for, to ensure patients receive joined-up services. For example we are working with local authorities with the aim of ensuring that we have more joined up health and social care services.